Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Mass Insight's PPSD Central Office Analysis is a Real Nothingburger

Dimension 4 essentially calls for some central office staff to serve as stewards of the change process.
These staff steward change by continuously referring to and updating the theory of action as needed,
communicating frequently with all stakeholders about the theory of action, and serving as strategic
resource brokers (Honig et al., 2010, pp. 88-89). These change managers may help district leaders
pursue both knowledge (such as experts in specific aspects of central office transformation) and fiscal
resources (such as support from local businesses or foundations).

It goes on and on like that for about 35 pages.

The bottom line is that contrary to the mayor and conventional wisdom, the PPSD central office is leaner than similar cities, particularly in professional staff. We are a bit over-staffed clerically in the central office. But in particular Mass Insight would like to see a lot more data analysis, including collecting and analyzing more data on central office performance, so it seems unlikely this bold transformation would result in much more than just fewer clerks and more higher-end wonks and no actual cost savings (which is presumably what people want).